Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra
Chopra in 2019
Born (1946-10-22) October 22, 1946[1]
New Delhi, British India[2]
CitizenshipUnited States[3]
Alma materAll India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Occupations
  • Alternative medicine advocate
  • public speaker
  • writer
Spouse
Rita Chopra
​
(m. 1970)​
Children
  • Mallika Chopra
  • Gotham Chopra
RelativesSanjiv Chopra (brother)
WebsiteOfficial website

Deepak Chopra (/ˈdiːpɑːk ˈtʃoʊprə/; Hindi: [diːpək tʃoːpɽa]; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-American author, new age guru,[4][5] and alternative medicine advocate.[6][7] A prominent figure in the New Age movement,[8] his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthiest figures in alternative medicine.[9] In the 1990s, Chopra, a physician by education, became a popular proponent of a holistic approach to well-being that includes yoga, meditation, and nutrition, among other new-age therapies.[4][10]

Chopra studied medicine in India before emigrating in 1970 to the United States, where he completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology. As a licensed physician, in 1980, he became chief of staff at the New England Memorial Hospital (NEMH).[4] In 1985, he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and became involved in the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. Shortly thereafter, Chopra resigned from his position at NEMH to establish the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center.[5] In 1993, Chopra gained a following after he was interviewed about his books on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[11] He then left the TM movement to become the executive director of Sharp HealthCare's Center for Mind-Body Medicine. In 1996, he cofounded the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.[4][5][10]

Chopra claims that a person may attain "perfect health", a condition "that is free from disease, that never feels pain", and "that cannot age or die".[12][13] Seeing the human body as undergirded by a "quantum mechanical body" composed not of matter but energy and information, he believes that "human aging is fluid and changeable; it can speed up, slow down, stop for a time, and even reverse itself", as determined by one's state of mind.[12][14] He claims that his practices can also treat chronic disease.[15][16]

The ideas Chopra promotes have regularly been criticized by medical and scientific professionals as pseudoscience.[17][18][19][20] The criticism has been described as ranging "from the dismissive to...damning".[17] Philosopher Robert Carroll writes that Chopra, to justify his teachings, attempts to integrate Ayurveda with quantum mechanics.[21] Chopra says that what he calls "quantum healing" cures any manner of ailments, including cancer, through effects that he claims are literally based on the same principles as quantum mechanics.[16] This has led physicists to object to his use of the term "quantum" in reference to medical conditions and the human body.[16] His discussions of quantum healing have been characterized as technobabble – "incoherent babbling strewn with scientific terms"[22] by those proficient in physics.[23][24] Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has said that Chopra uses "quantum jargon as plausible-sounding hocus pocus".[25] Chopra's treatments generally elicit nothing but a placebo response,[9] and they have drawn criticism that the unwarranted claims made for them may raise "false hope" and lure sick people away from legitimate medical treatments.[17]

  1. ^ Chopra & Chopra 2013, pp. 5ff.
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica Almanac 2010. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2010. p. 42. ISBN 978-1615353293.
  3. ^ Jeffrey Brown (May 13, 2013). "Chopra Brothers Tell Story of How They Became Americans and Doctors in Memoir". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
    Chopra & Chopra 2013, p. 194
    Boye Lafayette De Mente (1976). Cultural Failures That Are Destroying the American Dream! – The Destructive Influence of Male Dominance & Religious Dogma!. Cultural-Insight Books. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-914778-17-2.
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference restless was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference baer2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Deepak Chopra". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kaufman2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Alter, Charlotte (November 26, 2014). "Deepak Chopra on Why Gratitude is Good For You". Time. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Gamel2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b David Steele (2012). The Million Dollar Private Practice: Using Your Expertise to Build a Business That Makes a Difference. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-1-118-22081-8.
  11. ^ Dunkel, Tom (2005). "Inner Peacekeeper". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference baerp240 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference perfect was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference ageless was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference aids was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference AshmanBarringer2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Tompkins2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nightline was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kaminer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Indie-Bullshit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference skepdic-web was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Strauss, Valerie (May 15, 2015). "Scientist: Why Deepak Chopra is driving me crazy". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  23. ^ Plait, Phil (December 1, 2009). "Deepak Chopra: redefining "wrong"". Slate. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  24. ^ Burkeman, Oliver (November 23, 2012). "This column will change your life: pseudoscience". Retrieved May 19, 2018. [Chopra]'s the guy behind Ask The Kabala and 'quantum healing', which involves 'healing the bodymind from a quantum level' by a 'shift in the fields of energy information', and which drives people who actually understand physics crazy; his critics accuse him of selling false hope to the sick.
  25. ^ Chopra, Deepak (June 19, 2013). "Richard Dawkins Plays God: The Video (Updated)". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
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